Have been tinkering with some idea's for this GB for about a week. I've had many conversations via this forum with both and I do feel I need to take part in this GB as hommage to both forum members. As I don't have pre compiled Whif-projects suitable for this GB, I started sifting through the wings bin, fuselages bin, tanks bin and models.

First project that was more or less the first to be sort of complete was my tribute to Robbert's (Kitnut617).

I found a  1/72 Monogram Grumman Tigercat that is largely built in the stash. I bought this one a few years ago when i bought a collection of built models. Many parts were lost or broken off. But the base is all ok ( not too much glue mistakes, fingerprints in glue etc.) and i was figuring what is missing, can be replaced with something else from the parts bin.

Well ok so a Grumman F7-F Tigercat engines will be replaced by Allison T56 from a P-3c Orion (which I also bought in a separate parts collection). Unfortunately, I only have three engines and 3.5 propeller. Anyway, with those parts I can assemble 2 complete propellers.

This is the all important photo of the initial stage:
PXL_20240707_112556717 by Buddy Holly, on Flickr

The width of the T56's is smaller that that of the engine nacelles under the wings. So, the nacelles will be narrowed down a little. I will keep the height of the nacelles, though, because the height of the T56 is greater than the nacelles. The T56s will be slightly shortened at the bottom to match the nacelles.

First up is to narrow the nacelles and get a good fit for the T56's. The resulting holes are meanwhile filled and puttied. Time for a quick first picture of what the final result should look like.
PXL_20240707_161456158 by Buddy Holly, on Flickr
PXL_20240707_161507264 by Buddy Holly, on Flickr

I'm still working to compile a whif for Tophe but mojo comes and goes in waves....

Cheers,
David aka 63CPE

Just put both engines on one wing! Simples!

Or just leave one off entirely.................. 

Cut the tail planes off and turn em into a T tail ..Tophe did like T tails on some of his designs 😊😉

Quote from: Wardukw on July 08, 2024, 02:38:56 AMCut the tail planes off and turn em into a T tail ..Tophe did like T tails on some of his designs 😊😉

I'd highly recommend that for a turboprop (or jet) conversion, anyway, to prevent the stabilizers from being burnt away... And it should look interesting on an F7F. 

<mod hat on>
That's a lot of construction there Dave.
But I feel that if you remove the horizontal tails and the nacelles from under the wings then you will have done a sufficient level of deconstruction to meet the part of the rules about previously started models.
Mac, if you don't agree with this decision please speak up and we can discuss it.
<mod hat off>

Looks promising Dave.  Looking forward to it.

 

Don't forget 63cpe still has to build a cockpit from scratch from the look of it.
This is a very interesting project. You could make it look like a PT-6 style exhaust on the outboard side of each nacelle. That would help the tail plane problem. Or the T tail solution would be attractive. Just my $0.02 worth.

QuoteDon't forget 63cpe still has to build a cockpit from scratch from the look of it.

That's right. I need to scratch the interior as it's completely empty

Nice suggestion to put the exhaust to the side of the nacelle. I planned to put the exhaust to the top & rear of the nacelle but sideway ( like "lakers" on leadsleds  ) might be a better solution. need to check how this works with the tailplanes getting burned or not. T tail might be a solution to this. but need to check.

David aka 63CPE

What about.... tailplane part way up the fin, like on the Whirlwind?



I've been wondering how a Tigercat would look with a Bearcat canopy. That would surely mean major surgery.

Ref the canopy, I saw once where someone used an FW190 canopy on a slope, so the rear flat part was level with the spine of the aircraft and the lower edge was sloped down - sort of like an Intruders', which is about the only way I can describe it.

And yeah, interesting.

Quote from: perttime on July 08, 2024, 12:17:59 PMWhat about.... tailplane part way up the fin, like on the Whirlwind?



I've been wondering how a Tigercat would look with a Bearcat canopy. That would surely mean major surgery.

That's a damn cool idea and I like it ..ive got the Tigercat but ain't going to hack up my Whirlwind as that took me ages to find ...but a Mustang tho 😍   

The exhaust would be coming out through the wing and quite far back because those
P-3 "nacelles" from the kit are only what's in front of the firewall on a P-3; the propeller
gearbox and the compressor stage.


As an aside I was looking at some T56 info recently and on a specifications chart it gave
the weight of the propeller assembly and it's almost the same as the weight of the engine
alone. That's just the propeller, not the reduction gearbox as that's part of the engine.
I'll try to remember where I came across the info.

You cannot view this attachment.

Quote from: jcf on July 08, 2024, 11:49:41 PMThe exhaust would be coming out through the wing and quite far back because those
P-3 "nacelles" from the kit are only what's in front of the firewall on a P-3; the propeller
gearbox and the compressor stage.


As an aside I was looking at some T56 info recently and on a specifications chart it gave
the weight of the propeller assembly and it's almost the same as the weight of the engine
alone. That's just the propeller, not the reduction gearbox as that's part of the engine.
I'll try to remember where I came across the info.

You cannot view this attachment.

thanks for sharing this interesting info. This is convincing to me the exhaust need to be as far to the rear as possible. This means the tailplane will get t-tailed or halfway t-tailed.

David aka 63CPE

Quote from: Rick Lowe on July 08, 2024, 10:41:27 PMRef the canopy, I saw once where someone used an FW190 canopy on a slope, so the rear flat part was level with the spine of the aircraft and the lower edge was sloped down - sort of like an Intruders', which is about the only way I can describe it.

And yeah, interesting.

Like this?

Harpy WIP 5-8-22 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Quote from: 63cpe on July 09, 2024, 12:03:07 AM

Quote from: jcf on July 08, 2024, 11:49:41 PMThe exhaust would be coming out through the wing and quite far back because those
P-3 "nacelles" from the kit are only what's in front of the firewall on a P-3; the propeller
gearbox and the compressor stage.


As an aside I was looking at some T56 info recently and on a specifications chart it gave
the weight of the propeller assembly and it's almost the same as the weight of the engine
alone. That's just the propeller, not the reduction gearbox as that's part of the engine.
I'll try to remember where I came across the info.

You cannot view this attachment.

thanks for sharing this interesting info. This is convincing to me the exhaust need to be as far to the rear as possible. This means the tailplane will get t-tailed or halfway t-tailed.

David aka 63CPE

Go with twin booms and reshape the rear of the fuselage?  That'd also get a Tophe memorial build out of it as well